Strong Outpouring Of Support For HUD’s New Fair Housing Rule

WASHINGTON DC/PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) received overwhelming support in comments regarding its proposed “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” (AFFH) regulation. The AFFH rule sets more specific guidelines on how state and local governments receiving federal housing funds incorporate fair housing policies.

The long-awaited rule has the potential to improve HUD’s enforcement of the Fair Housing Act’s mandate to address segregated housing patterns and promote diverse, inclusive communities. It implements the section of the Fair Housing Act (42 USC 3608) requiring that HUD and its state and local grantees act “affirmatively to further fair housing.” Recipients of HUD funding and grants already are required to comply with this mandate, but the new rule, if strongly implemented, could clarify state and local obligations and improve the regional planning process.

During the regulatory comment period that ended yesterday, an array of national civil rights and progressive policy organizations responded with strong support of the rule, including the NAACP, National Urban League, National Council of La Raza, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, National Fair Housing Alliance, Building One America, Applied Research Center, Demos, the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC), and many others.  Click on the icon above to see full Press Release.

The Real Cost of Segregation—in 1 Big Chart

America is more diverse than it’s ever been. With whites projected to be a minority by 2043, the traditional racial geography of the American city—blacks and Hispanics in the inner city, whites in the suburbs—is eroding. Ever since the Fair Housing Act took effect in 1968, nationwide residential segregation between blacks and whites has been on the decline. But a closer look at who lives where shows that this story may be more complicated than it appears— and that a particular swath of urban Americans are actually more segregated than ever.

Justice Department Reaches Settlement with Florida HOA and Property Management Company for Illegal Occupancy Limits against Families with Children

The Justice Department announced yesterday that the Townhomes of Kings Lake HOA Inc. (HOA) and Vanguard Management Group Inc. have agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging violations of the Fair Housing Act (FHA).  The lawsuit alleged that the HOA adopted and both defendants enforced occupancy limits that discriminated against families with children at the Townhomes of Kings Lake, a 249-townhome community in Gibsonton, Fla.

Under the proposed consent decree, which must still be approved by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, the defendants will pay $45,000 to the family that initiated the original complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), $85,000 into a victim fund to compensate other aggrieved families, and $20,000 to the United States as a civil penalty.  In addition, the proposed consent decree prohibits the defendants from discriminating in the future against families with children and requires the defendants to receive training on the requirements of the FHA.  In January 2013, while the lawsuit was pending, the HOA modified its occupancy limits to permit four occupants in 2-bedroom townhomes, six occupants in 3-bedroom townhomes, and eight occupants in 4-bedroom townhomes.

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Cincinnati landlord to pay $855,000 for sexual harassment complaints

A Cincinnati landlord agreed to an $855,000 civil judgment against him, after admitting he violated the Fair Housing Act as alleged in a federal complaint filed by the Justice Department.